Thank You
by Kat Lee formerly Pirate Turner
Summary: At the end of a long, hard day, Ororo longs for Charles and doubts herself. Set after the third movie. RoLo


Title: "Thank You"  
Author: Pirate Turner  
Rating: G  
Summary: At the end of a long, hard day, Ororo longs for Charles and doubts herself. RoLo  
Warnings: None  
Disclaimer: Logan/Wolverine, Ororo "Storm" Munroe, and the X-Men are & TM Marvel comics, not the author, and are used without permission. Everything else is & TM the author. The author makes absolutely no profit off of this work of fan fiction, and no copyright infringement is intended.

She sighed as she all but fell down into the big chair facing the fire. There was supposed to be another person sitting here, but tonight she was just too tired to go any further. Her day had started with an emergency mission, been filled with lectures and politics, and culminated in another mission that they had barely escaped from without losing one or more of the students. She sighed as she started to run her hands over her face, but they lingered there, shielding the students who were filing by whispering to each other as they went from her open mouth. Even they were too tired to talk.

As the last pair of footsteps faded into the distance, Ororo raked her delicate fingers through the long strands of her snow white hair and peered into the flickering flames, thankful some one had already started the fire well before their return. The living room was toasty warm, a welcome change from the icy outdoors, and Ororo's mind began to drift even more.

She doubted she'd make it to bed, and she really didn't care. All she did care about these days was seeing that the children somehow survived the world around them that was growing ever more intolerant of their kind, but many nights, and days too, she doubted she'd ever manage to see them through all that they had to overcome. As she stared into the dancing fire, she thought of the man who should be sitting where she now slumped, half the person, if indeed even that much, that he had been.

Why? she thought for nigh the zillionth time, tears sparking in her blue eyes. Why had he been taken from them so soon, leaving them all unprepared for a world that really did, at least for the most part, hate them? What chance did they have without him? What chance did _she_ have without him?, she thought despairingly, her tears beginning to brim to the point of overflowing. She had been floundering ever since he'd left them, and she feared one day that that floundering uncertainty would be the death of one or more of the people she held so dear and near to her heart.

_Oh, Charles, what am I to do without you?!_ She closed her eyes against the tears that threatened to overwhelm her, then popped them wide open a second later as her feet were suddenly lifted. She was surprised to find Logan gently lowering her feet onto a stool but decided against acknowledging him and shut her eyes fast before he could see her tears.

A moment later, another sound caused her to crack an eyelid open. He was standing beside her this time, and she looked slowly and hesitantly up at him. Her mouth opened in surprise as she found him holding a bowl of heated soup and a glass of milk. "Thought ya might be hungry, 'Ro." His gruff voice was unusually soft, and she raised her eyes, even more hesitantly, to look into his.

What she saw therein stole her breath away. Logan had always had an expression in his eyes that beckoned to her soul, but what she found that night was something she was in sore need of but thought none could offer her: reassurance. "We'll make it through," his eyes told her though his lips never spoke a word of her tears or near breakdown. "We'll make it through, darlin', an' no matter what ya do, ya ain't gonna shake me."

Her tears sprung a new, but this time, they were tears of relief and gratitude. She quickly wiped them away with a shaking hand and offered him a tremulous smile of gratitude which warmed his heart as much as his silent reassurance had hers. "Thank you, Logan," she spoke as she accepted the simple meal, her eyes telling him, in turn, much more than her words did. _Thank you for everything._

**The End**


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